'Scary' situation: Search for suspect brings out SWAT team

Saturday

Jan 4, 2014 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - A police SWAT team scoured the backyards of a north Stockton neighborhood for five hours Friday morning and afternoon, searching for a man they feared was armed and dangerous after he fled from an officer who had detained him following reports of shots fired.

Keith Reid

STOCKTON - A police SWAT team scoured the backyards of a north Stockton neighborhood for five hours Friday morning and afternoon, searching for a man they feared was armed and dangerous after he fled from an officer who had detained him following reports of shots fired.

Police shut down Woodcreek Way between Stonewood Drive and Davis Road at 9 a.m., and the department SWAT team meticulously searched two cul-de-sacs across the street from Oakwood Elementary School and Dentoni Park. A California Highway Patrol helicopter flew overhead, aiding the search.

At 1:55 p.m., SWAT team officers found Anthony Taylor, 26, in a backyard shed in the 9000 block of Woodcreek Court, Stockton police spokesman Officer Joe Silva said

Silva said the incident began at 8:35 a.m. when an officer responded to shots fired in the 1000 block of Sunny Oak Way. An officer located Taylor and Diante Gray, 30. The officer stopped the men and was approaching them when Taylor fled in the direction of Bridgewood Court, police said. The officer was able to detain Gray.

Gray was taken in for questioning, and police learned that Taylor was wanted on a federal felony weapons warrant. The SWAT team was called in to lead a search.

After a two-hour search of Bridgewood Court, the SWAT team moved one block west to Woodcreek Court, where they found Taylor holed up in a backyard shed on the southeast corner of the court, police said.

Silva said Taylor would not come out of the shed at officers' commands, and a police dog was deployed to get him out.

Taylor was seen sitting in a squad car with a bandage wrapped around his head.

Police did not immediately find a weapon, but a search was ongoing Friday evening.

Residents of the neighborhood watched from behind police tape as the hours-long search took place.

"It is scary," said Patty Meintasis, a resident of Bridgewood Court, adding that she saw police chasing Taylor when she left her house. "I dropped my son off at my mother-in-law's, and when I came back, my street was blocked off. I couldn't get in. (Police) thought he was in my backyard, and he jumped the fence to my neighbors'."

Other residents watched from outside, attempting to call friends or relatives who might have still been in their homes.

Taylor was arrested on suspicion of discharging a firearm and resisting arrest as well as on an outstanding federal weapons warrant.

Gray was arrested on two outstanding misdemeanor warrants, police said.

Police said they did not believe that anybody was shot as result of the initial morning gunfire that led to the long search.

Contact reporter Keith Reid at (209) 546-8257 or kreid@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/lodiblog and on Twitter @KReidme.